Ingot transfer arm



Patented Aug. 27, 1935 UNITED STATES t an PATENT orriee INGOT' TRANSFERARM James L. Adams, J12, Youngstown, Ohio 7 Application ,July 18, 1933,Serial No. 680,967

15 Claims. ((1212 39),

The present invention relates broadly to the art of handling heavy metalingots, preparatory to their delivery to'a suitable ingot-carriage orbuggy, or to their handling into and out of 5 heating furnaces,preparatory to rolling, and

more particularly to the manipulation of ringingots, such as those inprocess of preparation for use in a continuous beltrolling mill, similartothat covered by my co-pending application, Serial No. 674,661, filedJune 7th, 1933, or ingots being entered into and Withdrawn from heatingfurnaces similar to those disclosed in my copending application, SerialNo, 655,185, filed February 4th, 1933, and being delivered to or from aningot-carriage as per co-pending application, Serial No. 652,142, filedJanuary 17th, 1933, although I do not limit the applications of myinvention to' the handling of ingots, as it is equally adaptable tolifting and transferring other classes of heavy articles.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a transferringmechanism particularly adapted to the inter-furnace andfurnace-toingot-car handling of heavy ring-ingots, as one element of thegeneral assembly of apparatus which includes the devices disclosed inthe above applications, and my centrifugal casting machine applicationSerial #680,570, filed July 15th, 1933.

Another object is to provide a type of transfer which can get into andout of a furnace of the general type referred to above, with as littleloss of hot-gases therefrom as possible, and which can selectively beapplied to the ingot desired, whether that ingot happens to be the nextone in sequence in the furnace, or not.

This provides for selective heating of any ingot, independently of therest, in case some cooler ingots are being brought up to temperature, aswhere most are taken direct from casting-wheel, but a few have some coldfrom storage pile.

Another object is to furnish an ingot transfer means which can readilybe operated over any one of three ways in any succession required, asfrom ingot-car to an initial heating furnace, from thisfurnace to asecond-stage heating furnace and from the latter back to ingot-car, andwith either furnace made the first one to be entered, since thecondition of the brick-work may necessitate use of either one at times,as the furnace of the higher temperature maintenance.

Still another object is to provide a transfer which can be set to pickup at one end of its travel, and release at the other, or reverse theends so acting.

Another object is to provide a transfer which might be substituted,without automatic features,

can be readily made to travel either 120 degrees .in the horizontalplane, as the path of delivery of the material is followed frompick-upto delivery-end, or to swing right across in one vertical planethroughout, so as to deliver 180 de- 5 grees from the starting point,approximately, should this be desired in some cases.

Another object is to make this 120 degrees of horizontal plane travelselective, and with the delivery in either direction along each 120 de-10 grees, as required.

Another objectis to provide a transfer-arm, which, if loaded, willautomatically complete the full swing required for proper delivery. ofthe burden. but which, if unloaded, will automat- 15 ically stop on thenext return of the arm to its top-most position, unless this stoppage isintentionally prevented by proper switch closure by operator.

An important object is to provide a transfer 20 mechanism which, for thefirst time, will combine all the above valued objects in a single,practical, and sturdy apparatus.

Other objects of commercial value will be self evident to anyone versedin the art to which 25 my invention appertains.

With all these and other objects in mind, I

have provided a substantially constructed means for quickly andaccurately picking-up, transferure 1, looking with the arrows, while forparts below line BB of Figure 2, this figure is in sec- 40 tion, as perline 1113-4113, of above Figure 1, again pointing with the arrows.

Figure 3 is an elevation showing gripping-arms spread and just releasedfrom ingot permanently,

by the closure of latch indicated at the left.

Figure 4 illustrates a wiring diagram of the complete transferequipment, including its operating motor, and the top-position interlockstop,

although in some cases a straight hand-control withoutdeviating from theletter or spirit of my invention.

In all the figures, identical parts are indicated by the same partnumbers. This drawing is shown for purposes of illustration on1y,and notbeveled prominences, or bosses 50, 5!, 52, located about as shown, butrelatively displaced in a direction axially of shaft l3, so that boss 58contacts with the operating rolls 53, 54, only, to close the normallyopen contacts 55, 56, respectively, while boss 5! connects with roll 5?only, to open the normally closed contacts 53, and boss 52 clears allrolls except 59 and 66, with which it is shown in contact in thedrawing, and which rolls serve to close the normally open contacts 8i,and respectively, as is likewise indicated by the drawing.

All the rolls 53, 54, 57, 59, and 66, are preferably of bakelite-micartaor other suitable insulating material, or if of metal, are then wellinsulated from the respective contacts.

Rolls 53 and st are mounted upon the oscillable metal bar 63, rolls 5and 5t upon the similar bar dd, both bars being mounted freely upon thestationary shaft 65, but insulated therefrom by suitable insulatingmaterial 66, said shaft being carried by an appropriate bracket 67, attached in any convenient way to plate 6.

Bars E3 and E4 carry at their right-hand ends the insulated rolls 68 and6%, respectively co-opcrating with the twin-dip springs Hi, i l, eachappropriately mounted upon bracket Si, by any convenient means, andadapted to hold the respective rolls in either one of the two dippositions indicated, until forcibly shifted over to the other. Thesebars provide means whereby contests 55 and 56 will always be opened upbefore contacts .5! and 62 close, and vice versa, all said contacts thenmaintaining their. status quo until the next forced motion of bar 53, orbar as, occurs, these two bars function similarly, but independently.

From a point near the axis of bars 53, 6 3, flexible conductors aretaken off to the right and left-hand throw points i2, and 13,respectively, of a single-pole, double-throw switch it, whose mid-pointterminal is connected to one of the contacts 58, and also to lead 34,from contacts before referred to, the remaining lead 35 from whichconnects to opposite side of contacts 58 through suitable flexibleconductor, and to one terminal of single-pole, single-throw knife switchthe opposite terminal of which is connected to flexible lead 34, abovementioned.

From switch '55, lead 35 extends on as incoming line iii from suitablesource of preferably direct current supply, the opposite line ll ofwhich enters through suitable disconnecting switch 18, (which may bedouble-pole, if desired), and on through the lead 79 to contacts 88 and8!, on opposite throws of the primary contactor 62.

From contacts 36 and 8!, connections are made through shunt coils 83 and8t and leads 85 and S6, to outboard side of contacts 55, 56, and 61, 52,respectively, as shown in the figure, it being noted that coil 83controls the right-hand swing of arm it, as indicatedby the R adjacentto said coil, while coil 34 is concerned with the left swing thereof, asindicated by the L nearby, this control being by means of lines 81, 88,from the upper-throw contact 89, and lower-throw contact S3, of primarycontactor .82, tothe re spective R and L throw coils 9i, and 92, of theheavy, or secondary contactor 93, and thence the leads Q 5 and 95,respectively, to side it of incoming power line, the opposite side T19,of which, connects through the lead 96 to terminals s; and 98, one oneach throw of the contactor 93, which carries two independent sets ofbridging contacts 99, and M3, on the insulating crossbar thereof, aspointed out by the numeral 93, just mentioned.

The remaining top right-hand contact point co-operating with bridge 99connects across to lower left hand contact under bridge 69, while theremaining bottom right contact under bridge 99 cross-connects to upperleft hand contact of bridge lilil, these upperand lower left-handcontacts for bridge lull connecting further through the leads liii,Hill, with the respective brushes of motor 45, while the top and bottomright-hand contacts associated with bridge mil, connect together, thencethrough series coil [S3 of said motor, and conductor we, to incomingline it. The twin-core elements of the two contactors 82 and 93 shown,are normally held in mid-position so that all contacts are open, by therespective spring suspensions Hi5 and use, these fiat springs beingsuitably supported upon the stationary mountings ill! and H28, properlyheld in position by any convenient means, (not shown).

If desired, small dash-pot elements may be added to the moving systemssupported by the springs m5, H36, in order to prevent'chattering, andrebound elfects.

In all the figures, forward directions of travel, or of current flow,are indicated by solid arrows, and reversed directions by dotted arrows.

In connection with the design of crank-arm d3,

slide ts, link 45, and segment 4 mounted in line with shaft 38, ofFigure 2, the preferred construction involves such a choice of relativedimensions of these elements, as will bring arm 43 substantiallyperpendicular to the slot in link 46, at the end of stroke of said arm,so that delivery of ingot, and the picking-up of new one, will occurabout on dead-centre position for the slide 35. This is slightly betterthan is shown in Figure 2, and the ingot approach to limit positions inthe horizontal swing directions will, therefore, be'more gradual.

This completes the presentation of parts of my invention, and since itis' believed that the operation of the total assembly thereof will beself-evident to anyone skilled in the art to which said inventionappertains, the supplementary comments on operation willbe made as briefas possible consistent with clearness of presentation.

The method of setting the transfer-arm for the particular 120 degreehorizontal swing required, as well as the action of the picking-up andrelease mechanisms, having already been described, I will confine thefurther description of operations to the functioning of the essentiallyelectrical parts presented upon the wiring or connection diagram, Figure4. If the pick-up of load is to be on right end of swing of arm H5, orwhere it is shown in this figure, then roll of Figure 2 will be set in.place, and roll 3! may or may not be removed, while lower switch i i, ofFigure 4, will be thrown to the right, or as shown, thereby bringingrolls 5S and es, and corn tacts 55, 51 into action. Contacts 56 and 62will now be idle, so that the former contacts govern the action, andthese being displaced a little to the right, this causes the reversalcontactsito function a little earlier in the stroke on the movement ofarm M to the right, than is thecase for its throw to the left, so thatthe latching-up of arms l1, l8 occurs only at the left, or releaseposition.

As shown, contact 6! is closed by roll 59, permitting a circuit to betraced from line it, through switch 18 at upper left, line 19, lower orleft throw governing coil 88 of primary contactor or relay 82, onthrough lead and contacts iii, to point 12 on right side of lower switchit, up through contacts 58, and out on the left to line 16 of theincoming power supply, thus completmg the circuit and closing primarycontact-or in the downward direction, after which a further circuit canbe traced through ll, 78, Hi, point St to pointed on relay 82, via lead88 to heavy shunt coil 82 of main contactor S3, and through conductor tooutgoing line 76 of the power line. Whereupon this contactor 93 closesin the downward or left throw governing'directicn of arm lt,'giving anew circuit from ll through 73 and 19, to lead 96 and contact 91, acrossbridge 99 along the underneath section thereof to the point on rightside, and thence past thejust now unused upper left point of contact ofbridge on through lead it! to one brush of motor t 5, out through theother brush and wire M2 to lower left contact point of bridge use,through lower section of latter to lower right point, on through seriescoil we of motor 4i, and line we and thence to return line it. Motor llbeing thus energized in proper direction to swing arm it to the let thelatter rises, and assuming an ingot present to be picked-up thereby, thesaid ingot will be carried along, eventually wiping buttonhead of pin33, or a roll set to replace the same, closing contacts 32 just beforethe circuit through contacts 58, in parallel therewith, is opened bycontact of roll 5? with the mid-point boss 59, so that circuitthroughrelay coil 8% is not disturbed, and the swing proceeds on to leftuntil .boss 59 touches roll 53 and forces it down, thereby opening upthe contacts 6i, releasing relay 82, and an instant later closingcontacts 55, and circuit through upper or right swing governing coil 83,of relay 82.

This circuit may be traced from incoming line 17, through switch 78,lead 19, point 85 and shunt coil 83, on via lead 85 to points 55, backto right-hand terminal '72 of lower switch It, up through contacts 53,and out to left to return line it. Relay 82 therefore rises, and a newcircuit can now be traced from l9 through point 8 of this relay,- acrossto point 89, out through line 81 to upper or right swing controllingcoil 9! of main contactor $23, and on via wire 94 to return line it,thereby closing this contactor upward, and giving a circuit fromincoming line 19 through lead 95 to top left point 98 thereon, throughbridge 99 to top right point, and down through lower left point underbridge I 0 and on to what was before the outgoing brush, but now theincoming brush of motor ii 2, through the lead it: connected therewith,then out from remaining brush via line ii]! to upper left contact overbridge lilti, acrossthe latter to upper right point, thence to nowunused lower right point and on to motor series coil Hi3 and back vialead lot to outgoing line 16 again, it being noted that direction ofcurrent flow through series coil is the ceeds on upward and'to right,until boss 5! hits roll 57, and opens up contacts 58, while contacts '32remain open this time, since no ingot is present to close them. Hencecircuit through relay coil 83 is forced to open, in turn opening thatthrough contactor coil SI, and stopping the motor M, with the arm l4left in approximately vertical position.

As soon as a new ingot is ready to be lifted on right, however, theoperator closes switch :5 for a moment or two, circuit through coil 83is re-established, re-closing that through coil 9i of main oontactor,and the arm if: proceeds on to right, and down to the position shown inFigure 4, when the reversal of the contacts 35 and Si, by the boss 52,functioning roll 5'3, causes another reversal of swing of arm i l, theload is picked up, and the procedure repeated as before outlined.

In an actual construction, motor 45 would probably not be a plain serieswound machine, as such would tend to speed up greatly on the down halfof swing, when arm Hi was under full load of ingot, so that a motor withheavy shunt winding cumulatively assisting the series is indicated, andfurthermore, by making this shunt coil very powerful, and placing aresistance in series therewith, properly shortcircuited during middle ofswing, but cut in near either end thereof, by appropriate and well knowncontact means likewise functioned'by the respective bosses 5t and 52, orothers out of alignment with the latter, and placed angularly just alittle nearer the mid-stroke position of counterweight it, the end ofeach swing can be made at slow speed, approximately that of theintermediate full speed positions, and thus greatly facilitating thestop and reversal actions, the former of which may be still furtheraugmented if necessary by the addition of a series operated electricbrake. These changes in motor operation and structure, however,represent well known improvements of, and not essential elements per eof my invention, and are therefore not shown on the drawing, in ordernot to complicate the presentation, such changes forming no part of mypresent claims.

It might be noted that usually the counterweight l5 will be so designedas to just about balance out 50% of the ingot weight, more or less.

By shifting the pin id, of crank-arm to the position 44' below, it actsas a lock, preventing any horizontal rotation of plate 4i, segment i'lstanding still, and the ingot being delivered straight across, 180degrees away from starting point, without any further changes, exceptthat if this action is contemplated, handle 8 would regularly be builtin position at a slot degrees around king-pin 3, from its position asshown on Figure 2, so as not to come immediately under delivery point ofingot] it is obvious that if such straight across delivery is the onlytype of motion desired, then a much simplified structure might besubstituted for that shown, but in many cases the three-way deliveryfeature is very important, as in connection with various furnace andingot-car locations, so I have indicated it as my preferredconstruction, without wishing to limitmy present application to thesomewhat more elaborate structure shown and described therein, and itwill be understood that changes in the construction or arrangement ofparts may be made without departing from the spirit of my invention, orthe scope of my broader claims.

Similarly it will be obvious that a purely manual control might besubstituted for the more or less automatic type of action which I havepreferred to show, and I do not desire to forego the use of suchsimplified apparatus, or to delete it from my claims. In certain cases,trip rolls 3i] and SI of Figure 2 may both be left in, so that entirechange from right to left pick-up can be made by throwing switch 7Certain very definite advantages accrue from the use of my ingottransfer-arm, in that it permits a wide diversity of pick-up anddelivery points to be selected, without material changes in theapparatus, and it is able to lift up any se lected ingot from a passingseries thereof, without disturbing the rest, and thus permittingselective ingot heating to be practiced in any furnace with which it isassociated. The majority of ingot transfers must take successive ingots,whether or no, and thus make selective heating thereof impossible.

Other advantages accrue from its mid-point stop feature, when unloaded,so that the arm is kept well out of the way, during transit of othercooperating apparatus.

Other important advantages will'be self-evident to anyone skilled in theart to which it appertains.

I claim: a

i. In a material transfer apparatus, a stationary base provided with ahorizontally positioned shaft, a swingable transfer arm mountedrotatably on said shaft, a material grab means mounted rotatably onouter end of said arm on a pin mounted substantially parallel to saidshaft and also included herein, two successively positioned limit stopsmounted operatively for deter mining the end of a given throw of saidarm by contact therewith, and a selector means applicable to electmanually which stop is to function.

2. In a material transfer apparatus, a stationary base provided with avertically projecting element, a horizontal shaft mounted in saidelement, a swingable transfer arm mounted rotatably on said shaft, 2.pin mounted substantially parallel to said shaft but near outer end ofsaid arm, a material grab means mounted rotatably on said pin, two limitstop means, one mounted for contact with elements of said arm at one endof the swing thereof, and the other at the end of the opposite swing,but respectively positioned to give a longer throw on one side of thevertical centre-line of throw of said arm than on the other, and powermeans applicable to swing said arm in either direction, as required. I

3. In a material transfer apparatus, a stationary base element, an armmounting means carried by said element, a swingable transfer arm mountedrotatably on said arm mounting means for movement in a substantiallyvertical plane, .a horizontal pin mounted near the outer end of said armand substantially parallel to axis of swing of said arm, a material grabmeans mounted rotatably on said pin, two limit stop means, one mountedto functionally contact with elements of said arm at the end of oneswing thereof, and the other at the end of the opposing swing, but withsaid limit stop means so mounted as to function farther away fromvertical centreline position of said transfer arm when latter is at oneend of swing than at the other, further means for inter-changing thelong and the short throw directions manually, as required, and powermeans applicable to propel said arm in successively alternatedirections.

4. A claim as in 2, but in which said material grab means includes twopendant arms mounted tained, and thereby withhold said grab means fromfunctioning as such.

5. A claim as in 2, but adding that said material grab means includestwo pendant arms mounted in such wise as to be individually rotatable onsaid pin and so as to be angularly separable when required, and alatching means operative to maintain a wide separation of said pendantarms when once attained, said transfer arm including a trip eans mountedconveniently thereon to contact with said latching means and re-set thesame, after a load has been released by said grab means.

6. A claim as in 2, but in which said material grab means includes twopendant arms mounted so as to be individually rotatable on said pin andso as to allow angular separation of said pendant arms when required,and a spreader means on lower side of each of said pendant arms, whichspreader means is positioned to contact with the load after the latteris deposited and widely spread said arms for latchingpurposes by'a briefcontinuation of the swing of said transfer arm beyond the initialload-release position, as determined by the limit stop giving the longerthrow thereto.

7. A claim as in 2, but in which there is con- 0 nected in circuit anadditional limit stop of the normally-open type, which is mounted so asto contact with the working load being carried, when said transfer armis at about mid-swing position, and thereby allow said arm to continueon its course, in spite of a mid-throw opening-up of one of theremaining limit switches, by a mid-point projection conveniently mountedupon a moving element of said transfer arm.

8. In a material transfer apparatus, a stationary and substantially flatsubbase, a substantialcircular fiat base-plate rotatably mounted thereonand operable about a vertical axis, a manually operable indexing meansto position said base-plate on said sub-base at a plurality of angularpositions, as required, a vertically projecting cap-plate elementmounted rotatably on said base-plate and operative also about a verticalaxis, a swingable transfer arm mounted to swing about a horizontal axispositioned in said element, a direct mechanical. driving connectionbetween said transfer arm and said baseplate, said connection beingrotatably mounted upon said cap-plate element, a material grab meansmounted on a pin located near the outer end of said transfer arm androtatably movable in a vertical plane thereon, said pin beingsubstantially parallel with the last mentioned axis, power meansapplicable toswing said transfer arm and said element over definitevertical and horizontal arcs respectively and concomitantly, by theconnection above mentioned, and a latching' up means applied to saidgrab means to allow release of the workng load automatically at apredetermined length of swing, as set by included limit stop means.

9. A claim as in 6, but in which two limit stops areincluded, one ateach end of swing of said transfer arm, respectively, and positioned tomake successive swings non-symmetrical about the vertical centre-line,through axis of said transfer arm.

10.111 a material transfer apparatus, a power operable swinging transferarm, said arm being arranged to swing through a vertical substantiallymid-position, a pair of limit stop means one of which is locatedadjacent the line of swing on each side of the said verticalmid-position respectively, the two being at different angular distancestherefrom however, a contacting device mounted on said transfer arm tocontact with said limit stop means and thereby provide for stopping saidarm at unequal distances on each side of said Vertical mid-position,power driving means for said transfer arm and which power means isconnected to and operable under control of said limit stop means, amounting base supporting said transfer arm in swingable relationthereto, a selector means providing for the interchange of the twodifferent angular distances of stop from normal mid-position as abovementioned, and so as to reverse the direction of longest throw of saidtransfer arm, a material grab mounted freely on a pin near outer end ofsaid transfer arm, and a grab latching-up means arranged to free it fromthe load on contact therewith at the end of the longer swing of said varm only,

i 11. In a material transfer apparatus, a swingable transfer armrotatably mounted for travel 1 vertical axis, connected mechanical meansproviding definite respective angular arcs of vertical and horizontaltravel for said transfer arm concomitantly, indexing means providing amanual selection of the centre-line of the horizontal arc of travel, apower driving means operatively connected with said transfer arm toswing the latter in either direction as required, and a material releasemeans operable by an excess length of throw of said arm in eitherdirection, as determined by location of said limit stop positions at therespective ends of travel of said arm.

'12. A material transfer apparatus, comprising a stationary sub-base,superposed base-plate rotatably indexed thereto, and manually adjustableangularly thereon about a substantially vertical axis, a cap-platerotatably operable over said base-plate and through a definitelydetermined angle, by power means connected thereto, a said cap-platebeing operable likewise about a substantially vertical axis, a swingabletransfer arm mounted rotatably about a horizontal axis in saidcap-plate, and likewise operable bypower means to points on each side ofsaid axis last mentioned, and limit stops mounted to contact withelements on said transfer arm and determine the successive lengths ofswing to each side of the vertical position thereof, as required.

13. A material transfer apparatus, comprising a stationary sub-base, asubstantially horizontal base-plate mounted thereon and adjustablyrotatable about a substantially vertical axis carried thereby, amanually operable indexing means applied to said sub-base and saidbase-plate to determine the angular position of the latter with respectmounted integrally on said cap-plate, a swingable transfer arm mountedrotatably about a substantially horizontal axis in said element, andpositioned near one end of said arm, a material grab means mountedrotatably on an axis near the other end of said arm, and operable by adefinite extent of swing of said arm away from the vertical positionthereof, a latch on said grab means and operable to contact with loadand release said grab means from the said load on the occurrence of adefinitely greater swing than above mentioned, a plurality of throwlimit stops positioned to contact with said transfer arm at therespective ends of the throw thereof and operative to determine asomewhat greater throw in one direction of swing thereof than on theother, and a power means applied to said cap-plate and to said transferarm to give concomitant rotation thereof through definite angles, andrepeatable indefinitely, as required.

14. In a material transfer apparatus, a stationary base, a verticallyprojecting element mounted rotatably on said base and about asubstantially vertical axis, a swingable transfer arm mounted rotatablyon said element and operable about a substantially horizontal axis, adirect mechanical connection between said transfer arm and said base,said connection being rotatably mounted on a horizontal axis attached tosaid projecting element, a material grab means mounted rotatably nearthe outer end of said transfer arm on a horizontal axis substantiallyparallel to said axis last mentioned, power means applied to rotate saidelement and said transfer arm over precisely and definitely determinedrespective angles concomitantly and to reverse the precise motionrepeatedly as required, latch mounted upon said material grab means tohold it in released position, and a projecting latchcontacting meansapplied to said transfer arm to release said latch after deposition of aworking load, and after the reversal of motion of said transfer arm atthe end of its swing, substantially as shown by part 3! in the drawing.

15. In a material transfer apparatus, a sta tionary base, a verticallyprojecting element mounted rotatably on said base and about asubstantially vertical axis, swingable transfer arm mounted rotatably onsaid element and operable about a substantially horizontal axis, adirect mechanical connection between said transfer arm and said base,said connection being rotatably mounted on a horizontal axis attached tosaid projecting element, a material grab means mounted rotatably nearthe outer end of said transfer arm on a horizontal axis substantiallyparallel to said axis last mentioned, power means applied to rotate saidelement and said transfer arm over precisely and definitely determinedrespective angles concomitantly and to reverse the precise motionrepeatedly as required, and two limit stops of which one contacts with amoving part near one end of its swing and the other near its other endof swing, and thereby determining the precise length of said swing ineach direction of travel of said part, according to the positioning ofsaid stops, and. for load pick-up and discharge purposes.

JAMES L. ADAMS, JR.

E. G. BAILEY Aug. 7, 1935.

FURNACE 2 Sheefs-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 6, 1931

